Oxfam Canada World Food Day 2008

The battle against hunger suffered a
serious setback this year, due to escalating food prices caused by increased
demand and reduced production. The 850 million people who suffer chronic
hunger have now been joined by hundreds of millions more, virtually all
of them in poor countries.

Haiti has been experiencing food riots
as people cannot afford the food they need. Judith Alexandre, a single
mother in Haiti, used to make breakfast for her two children before setting
off for work as a street vendor, but the steep increase in rice prices,
a Haitian staple, has meant her children are having to skip their morning
meal.

On average, food prices have risen by
83 percent, compared with three years ago, while the cost of rice, corn
and other staples has risen as much as 300% in some countries. For poor
families, many of which spend up to 70 per cent of their income on food,
even small increases in food prices squeeze the household budget and often
lead to pulling girls out of school to save on fees, or refusing to seek
medical attention because of the cost.

When households reduce food consumption,
it is often women and children that suffer most. In places where people
are too poor to buy food at all, these developments have caused a humanitarian
emergency. In Somalia, for example, nearly half of the population, or 3.25
million people, are now in need of emergency assistance. And in Ethiopia
4.6 to 6.4 million people have been driven into destitution in the past
year, in addition to the 7.2 million who receive food aid every year.

The perfect storm

A number of factors have come together
to create a 'perfect storm' of a food crisis:

Human-induced climate change is a major
cause. Extreme weather events, including droughts, floods and storms, have
become the norm, leading to significantly reduced crop yields. According
to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in some countries, yields
from rain-fed crops could be halved by 2020.

The boom in biofuels, especially ethanol
made from corn, is another primary cause. The International Monetary Fund
estimates that last year biofuels accounted for almost half the increase
in demand for major food crops. The OECD estimates that between 2005 and
2007, almost 60 per cent of the increase in consumption of cereals and
vegetable oils was due to biofuels. Biofuels do not just consume food directly,
they compete with it for land, water and other inputs, pushing prices up
further.

A third cause is the rising cost of fossil
fuels, which has driven up the cost of fertilizers and other inputs farmers
need, as well as transport and storage costs. When poor farmers cannot
afford such inputs, they plant and harvest less. World fertilizer prices
went up by more than 200 percent in 2007, according to the International
Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development.

Changing dietary patterns is a fourth
cause. As incomes increase in the larger developing countries, especially
China and India, demand rises for meat and dairy products. These goods
require vast amounts of grain to produce. Research varies on how much grain
is require to produce the same amount of calories through livestock, both
most fall in the range of about two to five times more grain, and up to
10 times more in the case of grain-fed beef in the United States.

Finally, lack of government investment
in small-scale food production over past decades has made it harder for
farmers to take advantage of higher prices and produce more food. Aid to
agriculture has fallen by half since 1990, parallel to a shift in government
strategy away from rural development toward export industries.

An opportunity

The food crisis presents an enormous
challenge to the leadership and legitimacy of national governments and
the world's multilateral institutions. But it is also a genuine opportunity
to deliver long overdue reforms to the food and agriculture system to increase
food production, favour small-scale farmers, and help them adapt to climate
change.

Most poor people in developing countries
make a living from agriculture, so in the longer term higher prices should
encourage investment in agriculture and offer the possibility of better
rural livelihoods. But only for those that survive the short term. At the
moment, soaring prices are increasing inequality and undermining progress
in tackling poverty.

- Implement aid programs in ways that
minimize the burden on women's time, maximize women's say, and strengthen
the clout of producer organizations and women's groups in the marketplace.

In Ethiopia, Oxfam has had success in
developing cereal banks where small farmers "deposit" their harvest
along with their neighbours and draw corresponding payments. The farmers
in the cereal bank can sell into the market when prices are high and have
a reliable store of grain all year round. Oxfam also work with partners
to establish women-led enterprises that increase incomes and reduce environmental
exploitation and pressure on the land.

And in Haiti, Oxfam is supporting subsidized
community restaurants, soup kitchens and school canteens. In rural areas,
Oxfam is organizing a cash-for-work canal cleaning project, improving and
diversifying crops and vegetables, and improving market links for small
farmers. It is through the community restaurant that Alexandre has found
some relief. For just 13 cents, Alexandre and her children can have a daily
subsidized hot meal, ensuring that not all of her money must be used for
buying food.